Cheap Reeds For Clarinet, But Poor Quality

Advantages: cheap
Disadvantages: low quality, split easily

...Rico clarinet reeds were the first ones I was introduced to when I started to play clarinet. These a re natural reeds and tend to vary in quality. I started with a very soft one (they range form 1 to 5) and progressed through to a three. I have never got any further. Reeds can be expensive and beginning and less practised clarinet players tend to go through quite a lot of them. I have found a few split reeds and ones that were so thin that they were almost like paper at their tips among the reeds in a box of Rico standard ones. Rico reeds are cheap but they are also low quality. The Rico reeds tend to take time to break in and once they are suitably moist and playing well, they tend to split and have to be replaced. The Vandoren reeds are more expensive and they last longer but they tend to be a little bit harder than the Rico...

jan007 07.06.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Rico Clarinet Reeds

Arundo Donax

Advantages: Cheap
Disadvantages: Don't produce the Best tone in the World

...the Clarinet Reed field, and they are Vandoren and Rico. This review is about Rico Reeds, but it's hard to talk about them without giving some comparison with the main competitor, since your basic purchasing decision will be between these two brands. Here's what Vandoren say about their standard B flat Clarinet Reeds: "The most widely played Reeds in the professional world." And here's what Rico claim about their most similar product: "The world's most popular Reed." One thing you may be able to deduce from this is that Vandoren Reeds are better and also more expensive. They produce a better tone for professionals, who are more picky about these things than amateurs. However, there are many more amateurs piping away in their bedrooms on a Sunday afternoon than there are professionals, and they tend to choose Rico, so they can't be all bad...

Tricksty 14.09.2005 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Rico Clarinet Reeds

Read all I know about Reeds

Advantages: A good plant
Disadvantages: a bit invasive

...Reed is a name that is used to describe many similar plants that grow in water.A reed is a plant that is grasslike with long flat leaves. The edges of the reed leaf can sometimes be very sharp .I have actually cut myself on them sometimes . One reed is used for thatching that is a reed called Norfolk reed but some reeds are used that are grown in other countries. Water reed is a stronger more durable thatch then long wheat straw which are also used to thatch roofs. Norfolk reed is also used for fencing panels . The Norfolk reed beds are well known as good places to go birding. Cley marsh has an area of reed bed. The bearded tit nests in these east anglian reed beds. The Sedge and the Reed warbler, the bittern and the great crested grebe are amongst other birds that use the reed beds making their nests from the reeds. There are...

mumsymary 05.07.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Reed

The Clarinet by Jack Brymer

Advantages: Covers all aspects of playing/history of clarinet
Disadvantages: May be too in depth for the average player!

...If you play the clarinet and interested in finding out a little more about it than the fact that it?s black, about 2 feet long with a single reed, try Jack Brymer?s ?Clarinet? from the Yehudi Menuhin Series. If you don?t play the clarinet, may I ask why not?! You can pick one up quite cheaply and they are as easy to learn in the early stages as the recorder, but sound a lot cooler-go on- I dare you! Once you?ve mastered the basics this book will serve as a valuable friend and teacher through the more taxing grades. I picked it up at about grade 5, and still pick it up for advice today, with a music degree under my belt. If you?re vaguely serious about the instrument, it?s worth the mere £9.95 it will put you out of pocket. A word on the author- Jack Brymer was clarinet king. His recordings of the Mozart clarinet concerto and quintet...

Tricksty 10.08.2004 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Clarinet - Jack Brymer

My Buffet Clarinet

Advantages: A nice rich sound. Uses up my spare time.
Disadvantages: Uses up my spare time

...nicely around the clarinet and I can reach the keys but I still keep pressing the blocker by mistake. A standard Buffet mouthpiece comes with the clarinet, which comes in its own little case. The reeds inside the mouthpiece can split easily so I have to have some as spare. I am now on my third reed. It is quite easy to take apart and put back together although the keys dig in a bit and can hurt. The carrying case is quite sturdy and is heavy to carry around. It has a nice rich sound and is supposed to be responsive although my aunt can?t play it and she is supposed to be musical. My uncle says it is has a relaxing and mellow sound. Recently I did my first performance for the school leaving assembly and I was very nervous. I am very pleased with the clarinet and will be carrying on playing it. I just hope that one day I will...

MissNicole 19.12.2004 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Buffet RC Prestige Bb Clarinet

Reed's Love Song To Poe

Advantages: Some good songs and performances
Disadvantages: Overlength, inconsistent and some bad performances

...So often formerly interesting and cutting edge musicians lack grace when entering their twighlight years. Prime examples would include Paul MCartney, Mick Jagger and Rod Stewart (yes, I think some of Rod's early work was both interesting and cutting edge). There seems to be a need to either keep up with kids or lose originality altogether. This has thankfully never been the case for Lou Reed who has remained constantly interesting, whether you like him or not, and this release from 2003 is no difference. This record is essentially Reed's tribute to Edgar Alan Poe. Rife with guest appearances from the likes of William Dafoe, David Bowie, Ornette Coleman and Antony Heggarty, this is an intriguing if sometimes patchy album. Some songs are wonderful, others meander and he gets too involved in contrived spoken word in places. When it...

Nixu1980 04.11.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Raven, The - Lou Reed

Vandoren for Optimum Tone Quality

Advantages: Exceptional tone quality.
Disadvantages: Can be hard to blow initially.

...I have been using Vandoren reeds for the past seven years, since I changed clarinet teachers. My first teacher had started me on Rico reeds, and having no experience of clarinet playing did not know that better reeds were available. Since using Vandorens I have managed to improve my tone quality tremendously. I am sitting my grade 8 exam in a few months, most definitely using a Vandoren V12 reed (strenght 3). As with all reed brands, Vandorens come in several strengths (from one to five). I have found that, even increasing strength by only half a unit at a time, changing strength can be a challenging time leading to sore lips and throats. I have also found that the strength and quality of individual reeds vary greatly. One reed may be easy to blow, or even over blow easily, while the next reed in the pack will take a week...

tomt89 20.05.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Van Doren Clarinet Reeds

Buffet RC prestige Clarinet

Advantages: Great Quality and Sound
Disadvantages: A bit expensive

...After starting the clarinet at school i asked for a buffet B12 clarinet for christmas. I kept this clarinet until the last year of my A levels but my clarinet teacher advised me that i needed a new one to progress further. Because of this i then started to try many different clarinets. I tried nearly every model and every make and narrowed it down to a Buffet RC and a Buffet R13. The reason i chose an RC prestige was because of the dark mellow german tone compared to the R13 prestige which gives a brighter french tone. This clarinet served me well through my degree, i gained a first in major performance with this clarinet and enjoyed every minute of practicing with it. now i am a woodwind teacher i would always tell the pupils to go for Buffet as they make outstanding clarinet. Even the most basic models are well built and sound good...

musicdave 12.10.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Buffet RC Prestige Bb Clarinet

Beware of Reeds Rains Lettings

Advantages: None
Disadvantages: Many

...Reeds Rains Lettings. My wife and I have been renting a house Ferryhill now for five months and all we can say is when the 6 months contract is over we cannot wait to leave the property and we never want to hear the name Reeds Rains ever again. I have never known anything like it in my life. They have not fulfilled any of there resposabilities and as for the contract, that is a complete joke. I seems that the people renting are responsable for everything and they are not responsable for anything at all. From the minute we moved in we have had nothiong but problems starting with the hand rail up the stairs falling off the wall. The hand rail was screwed into a plasterboard wall and some of the fixings were just into plasterboard only. How a hand rail is suposed to have the strenth to fulfill it perpose screwed into plasterboard I dont...

housemove 04.09.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Reeds Rains

Mistrial - Lou Reed

Advantages: a couple of decent songs
Disadvantages: too much avearge material and average production

...Arguably the least regarded Lou Reed album, Mistrial just seems to receive indifference from most people. It doesn't upset anyone, like Metal Machine Music did, nor does it excite audiences in the way that Transformer did. Mistrial consists of ten average songs, played competently, sung ok, and produced ok. And that's about it. There's nothing that really stands out, the resolutely 1986 production utilises very basic drum machines for the first and last time in Lou's history, and everything sounds rather boomy and upfront, but hollow and lacking in substance. The ttle track at least features a cracking melody, but Mama's Got A Lover, whilst not a bad song, sounds like a bad Lloyd Cole copy. A rather bizarre achievment sounds like a bad copy of someone who sounds like a bad copy of Lou Reed. "Video Violence" has a sparky sound but...

adams66 17.09.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Mistrial - Lou Reed